The beauty behind the mask
by evilregalslola
Summary: Two teenage girls who are opposites in every way but fit together perfectly. Emma who is struggling to come to terms with her feelings for this girl and Regina who sees the darkness and destruction in life rather than the light and beauty.


**This is chapter one of my first Swan Queen fanfic. I have read several other teenage Swan Queen stories where Emma is the 'bad girl' and Regina is portrayed as quite 'innocent' therefore I thought I would switch them both around. I hope you like it!**

 **PS The first chapter is mostly Regina because I wanted to tell her backstory at the beginning.**

The sun fell behind the horizon, painting the sky shades of red and pink as Emma began to make her way home from Granny's Diner. She had promised her parents she would be back from visiting Ruby by dinner time but Emma was already thirty minutes late. 'I should've brought my car' Emma thought to herself since she had stupidly decided to walk to Granny's and enjoy the outside instead of driving to the diner. Emma was about to pass the local park but cutting through it would save at least ten minutes, she thought to herself.

Emma passed briskly through the park gates as this was the better of two options. The park was extremely peaceful at this time in the day. It was autumn season and the trees were beginning to lose their leaves but the park still looked stunning in the sunset. The place was quiet and peaceful with nobody insight, that was until Emma spotted the girl.

The girl sat on the bench opposite the lake with a sketchbook and pencil in her hand and her school bag situated beside her. She had short dark brown hair that barely reached her shoulders and her eyes were also a dark shade of brown that matched her smooth olive coloured skin. For some strange reason Emma stopped walking and merely took in the appearance of the girl near her. From what Emma could see she was wearing a black hoodie with matching black jeans and black converse to complete the outfit.

"Do continue to stare dear, I don't mind at all" the voice in question was dripping with sarcasm.

Suddenly Emma awoke from her daze she did not realize she was in to begin with and saw that the brunette girl was staring at her with a glare that was icy yet hid some amusement behind it.

"I'm…sorry, I didn't…mean…to" Emma stuttered.

Emma quickly hurried passed the girl and avoided all eye contact whilst she passed the bench.

"Have a good evening dear" smirked Regina whilst she returned to her drawing.

'What the hell was that?' thought Emma. Why did this stranger have such an effect on her? The deep, husky but enticing voice began to play through her mind as she continued her walk home.

It was evening time now and Regina had just arrived back at her house from her time at the park. She braced herself for what was to come when she opened that front door for inside was her own personal version of the devil, her aunt Cora.

"You're late Regina." There stood Cora in the hallway of the mansion, her voice laced with anger.

"You said that I could go out as long and I was back for eight o'clock and it has just gone two minutes passed" replied Regina.

"Exactly Regina! I expect punctuality in my house! And whilst under my roof you will not wear that awful jacket of yours and those shoes because no niece of mine will dress like a man."

"I understand Cora" replied Regina whilst attempting to keep calm and composed. This was not Cora's house; it was hers and her fathers and it always would be.

"Dinner will be in precisely twenty minutes and I expect you to change into something more appropriate for when you are at the dinner table."

Regina made her way upstairs to her bedroom after Cora had returned to the kitchen. Regina hated that woman. Cora had wormed her way into Regina's life when her father died. Her father owned this mansion and he was extremely rich for he ran a successful business that expanded worldwide. Regina idolised her father and they were very close. Henry had always been there for Regina and after her mother died from cancer when Regina was just seven years old he was the only parental figure she had. Regina was happy until she was fourteen which was when everything changed and her world came crashing down.

Regina remembered it like it was yesterday. She remembered coming home from school awaiting her father to return from work but he never came back. She waited and waited all evening calling him every ten minutes. He always arrived home no later than five thirty and if he was ever late, he would always call her. Minutes felt like hours and when it came to eight 'o'clock, Regina decided to call her father's work place for she knew some staff worked there until nine. She remembered a young man answering the phone and when she asked where her father had gone he said that he had left at five to go home. That was when Regina truly panicked and told this man that her father was not back and she did not know where he was. She recalled the events of that evening when the young man kindly stayed on the line with her to comfort her whilst the various members of staff tried to contact her father. Henry was well known for his punctuality and being late home was never an option for him because he always returned to his little girl.

Then suddenly the young man stopped speaking to Regina and Regina could hear a woman in the background speaking to the man on the phone. Regina remembered the man telling her to wait at home because the police were coming to her. Regina was in tears at this point. Why are the police coming? Where's my daddy? What's happening? All these questions raced through the fourteen year olds mind.

The police told her. She remembered breaking down and collapsing onto the floor when the policeman had said to her that her father had been killed. He had been murdered on his way back from work. Henry has stopped off at a local grocery store close to his work but he never made it inside for he was grabbed and killed at the side of the grocery store. The killer had been found dead too for he had killed himself after he had killed Henry. The reports said the killer had murdered three other people in the past month too.

Regina's life was shattered and she had nobody left. She had lost her mother and now her father in the cruellest way possible. That was when services got in contact with her aunt Cora. She was her mother's older sister and the only living relation to Regina. Regina had only met her aunt Cora a handful of times when her mother was still alive but she never liked her. She remembered her mother as a warm and kind woman but Cora was cold and heartless. However, with no other options Cora agreed to be Regina's guardian and moved into the mansion in Storybrooke.

Cora was not physically abusive however, her hurtful words to Regina probably hurt more than being physical and she made sure Regina lived by her rules. This included bowing to Cora's every whim. As Regina got older Cora began to look after her less for she regularly travelled to different places and left Regina alone. Regina knew that Cora had various male lovers she went to visit whilst she was away but Regina did not mind because she had freedom and the house to herself if it was immaculately cleaned by the time Cora returned. She could wear what she wanted when she was home alone. Cora hated that she dressed like a 'man' by wearing jeans and jackets instead of skirts and heals. However, Cora allowed Regina to wear jeans and boots to school because even Cora had to admit it was a lot more practical.

Tears began to surface as Regina thought about her daddy whilst getting changed into something more 'feminine.' She then sat at her desk and began looking through her artbook which she kept hidden so Cora did not see her drawings. Some were of nature and the countryside like the one she had finished in the park but others were not so innocent. Regina laughed sadly to herself as she began to flick through her drawing book to the drawings of the women who were wearing clothes that did not leave much to the imagination. She thought of the look on Cora's face if she knew Regina's eyes were drawn to the fairer sex and not that of men. Lost in her thoughts, Regina barely heard the voice of Cora shouting her down to the dining room for dinner.


End file.
